Rob Smith is a Dublin-based author whose work explores the emotional, cultural, and human stories within world football. His writing blends history, identity, and lived experience, with a particular focus on South American football and the communities shaped by it.
His most recent release, Pure Bliss in La Boca: A History of Boca Juniors and the Passion in La Bombonera, offers a vivid portrait of Argentina’s most iconic club and the people who bring it to life. In August 2025, the book was formally received into the library at La Bombonera — a rare honour for an English-language work, and one Smith witnessed in person.
A full Spanish edition, Pura Pasión en La Boca, followed six months later, opening the story to Boca’s global and native fanbase. The translation has been warmly embraced in Argentina and across Latin America, strengthening the book’s connection to the community that inspired it.
Smith is also the author of Camp Nou: A Very Brief History on Europe’s Greatest Football Stadium, a concise examination of one of football’s most politically and culturally charged arenas.
Beyond writing, Smith is a musician, producer, and DJ whose work moves confidently between electronic experimentation and the underground creative scenes that shaped him.
As the creator of The Swedish Railway Orchestra, his long-running non-live electronic project, Smith has carved out a distinctive sound built on inventive production and hypnotic, genre-blurring rhythms. Releases such as This Is a Dream(2017), This Is a Mixtape (2019), The Swedish Railway Orchestra (2020), Dance to the Drum Machine (2022), and Once Upon a Time…(2024) have established him as an original voice within Irish electronic music.
Onstage, he is a long-time DJ at The Workman’s Club in Dublin, where his indie and alternative sets have become a fixture of the city’s nightlife. He has shared bills with acts including Fontaines D.C. — notably at their massive Finsbury Park show — IDLES, Gilla Band, and more, with DJ appearances stretching from Berlin to Buenos Aires and Newcastle to New York.
Contact Rob at: info[at]robsmithbooks[dot]org
Rob Smith Books 